Topic: patents

An Apple invention published on Thursday illustrates a simple yet effective way to remind a user of who is on the other end of a text message or group chat, a problem that is the bane of people who juggle multiple conversations at once.

As the launch of Apple's next-generation iPhone draws near, new documents discovered on Tuesday reveal the company is already looking ahead to future versions of the handset that may sport functional wrap-around displays.

After seeing the majority of its Java infringement claims against Android essentially set aside in 2012, Oracle has now won an important reversal on appeal that will allow it to pursue its $1 billion case against Google and potentially an injunction against Android as infringing its Java intellectual property.

Documents discovered on Thursday show Apple is hard at work on tech to take iPhone picture quality to new levels, specifically a "super-resolution" imaging engine that uses optical image stabilization to capture multiple samples that are then stitched together to form an incredibly high-density photo.

Apple is famous for its pioneering touchscreen devices, but a new patent shows the company has also dabbled behind the scenes in touch-sensitive buttons that would be able to distinguish between accidental activation and an actual finger press.

Following the jury's verdict in the second Apple vs Samsung trial, which found infringement in three of the five patents Apple argued, the company issued a statement thanking the jury and suggesting a continued fight to defend the company's innovative products.

The jurors deciding the outcome of the second Apple vs Samsung trial haven't yet returned a verdict, but their options are limited to a few possible outcomes, ranging from a fiery thermonuclear blast to a wintery new Dark Ages.

Apple has shown interest in building a docking station for devices like the iPhone and iPad that would retract the connector when the "iDevice" is being removed, preventing damage to both the dock and the device.

While Apple's most recent innovations have come from portables like the iPad Air and iPhone 5s, a document uncovered on Thursday reveals a feature-laden keyboard with multi-function "keystacks" that integrate miniature displays, touch sensors and haptic feedback mechanisms.

While current iOS devices employ traditional voice coil motors for camera autofocusing duties, Apple is looking into a unique MEMS solution that could lead to much slimmer and more power-efficient handset designs.

A U.S. appeals court ruled that Apple and Google's Motorola can sue each other over smartphone patents, overturning Judge Richard Posner's opinion from the summer of 2012. The court also sided with a claim construction that does not favor Apple, and may impact its case with Samsung.

A pair of documents unearthed on Thursday detail Apple's ambitions to make the iPhone -- or rumored iWatch -- a one-stop-shop for gathering all kinds of data, including information about a user's surrounding environment.

Even more startling than the news from today's trial that Google offered to indemnify Samsung for Android's infringement of Apple's iPhones patents is the fact that Samsung falsely stated in court filings that that it had not been "seeking indemnification from any third party."

A new piece of technology unearthed on Tuesday shows Apple has developed iPhone technology that automatically shuts off texting capabilities when it is determined that a user is driving, helping to mitigate potential accidents resulting from in-car distractions.

New documents unearthed on Wednesday show Apple was toying with a gesture-based unlock function for its mobile devices some four years after the idea was introduced in the Android operating system. Cupertino's version, however, is arguably far more advanced than even the latest designs from Google.

Samsung executives discussed Steve Jobs' passing as "unfortunately" having an "unintended benefit for Apple," and at the same time, "our best opportunity to attack iPhone," in internal memos marked "highly confidential," presented in the Apple v. Samsung trial.

New confidential internal memos presented in the Apple v. Samsung trial detail a "counter tsunami plan" Samsung hoped to set up in response to Apple's iPhone 5 launch, in order to distract from its own Galaxy product vulnerabilities it described as "plastic feeling" with "lack of key feature."

While most mobile devices rely on GPS for mapping and navigation, the system only works outdoors and in range of satellite timing signals. However, new technology from Apple could extend accurate positioning indoors without need for additional hardware aside from existing Wi-Fi infrastructure.

Before and after versions of Google's internal "software functional requirements" documents released in the Apple vs Samsung trial this week show that prior to Apple's 2007 iPhone debut, Google's vision for Android was a simple button phone running Sun's Java.